VIDEO: Watch dad catch son’s walk-off homer in Port Neches Little League championship
Published 12:30 am Friday, July 2, 2021
Adam Smith, left, poses with his son Jake Smith and the walk-off home run ball. (Courtesy photo)
Adam Smith, left, hugs his son Jake Smith after catching his game-winning homer. (Courtesy photo)
The homer un ball will be on display in the center of Jake Smith’s trophy case. (Courtesy photo)
Adam Smith embraces his son Jake Smith after the game. (Courtesy photo)
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PORT NECHES — Very few kids get to hit a walk-off homer in a championship game. An even smaller percentage get to share the moment Jake Smith and his father Adam Smith did in a recent U12 championship game.
The Port Neches All Stars were up a game on Bridge City in the double-elimination tournament.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth (final inning), PN’s Parker Ross smacked a solo home run to bring his team within one. With no outs, Bryceten Felps was hit by a pitch, putting the tying run on first base with Jake Smith up to bat.
“(Jake) comes up to bat and, of course, my nerves are just crazy,” Adam Smith said. “I’m thinking, ‘This is it. What if he strikes out, pops out or this or that?’ I am in the outfield. It is me and a bunch of other dads. I turn my rally hat sideways and hold my arms up. I’m yelling ‘Light ‘em up, Jake. Light ‘em up.’ I wanted him to see me and know we were pumped up for him.”
Jake Smith crushed the first pitch thrown at him, sending it deep towards the back wall.
“We know it is deep, but how deep is it,” his dad said. “The centerfielder is lined up right at the fence. We are sitting in the back of my buddy’s truck and it is coming. It seemed like it was slow motion. I just hold my hand out and it lands right in my hand. I didn’t have to go left or right.”
In a video that had nearly 30,000 views online as of Thursday, a jubilant Adam Smith can be seen jumping up and down after making the catch.
“I lost my mind,” he said. “Someone caught a picture of me after the game squeezing his guts out. He didn’t even realize I had caught the ball. He just knew he hit a home run. It was a great father-son moment.”
Adam Smith said the ball is now in the middle of his son’s trophy display.
“You can live 100 lifetimes and that never happens,” Adam Smith said. “It’s indescribable. Looking at the video now, I look stupid… I didn’t even remember what happened. It was just so blurry and foggy because the emotions were so high. I had to watch the video to see what happened.”
